I am sending this picture in hopes
someone will be able to identify some of these people.
It appears to be a family gathering of the Marion & Julia Ann Copple
Roper families. A cousin tells me that the man standing at the far
right in the picture (left, as one looks at it), is our grandfather,
Walter Marion Roper. He is holding his daughter, Helen Marie,
according to my source. The picture must have been taken in 1900 because Helen
looks to be about three years old. She was born in 1897.
Judging from the features of several of the men and women, I think they
are Ropers. I have no pictures of any Copples, so can't be sure what
they looked like.
If the time period is correct, Walter and Lutie (O'Brien) would have
two boys with them, Lance E., born 1893 and Sherman, born 1895.
Note the boy kneeling in from, holding a Civil War era rifle. It is
merely supposition on my part, but that rifle might have belonged to my
great grandfather, Henry O'Brien who served in Co. F. 74th Infantry,
Illinois. He entered, enlisted, in the fall of 1862 and mustered out in
1865 after the end of the war.
I am just guessing that the gathering was held at the Marion Roper
place.